Prominent Hunt
Santa Feans have been treated to some surprisingly low-flying helicopters over the south part of town this week. Don't fear, say the feds, it's just "Prominent Hunt 17-2." SFR went on its own slightly less-prominent hunt to figure out what was going on, and the Department of Energy says it's a twice-yearly exercise to make sure a number of agencies are ready for a nuclear attack. It includes the FBI and the Department of Defense and, the DOE says, it's been going on since 2012. But clear your browser history just in case.
Plame and simple
Valerie Plame Wilson—ex-spy, current novelist and Santa Femous personality—spent yesterday morning cleaning up a mess. It was her own, which she admitted after tweeting a link to an article entitled "America's Jews are Driving America's Wars." She argued the article made good points once you got past the incendiary headline, and urged people to read all of it before getting all, um, atwitter. A couple hours later, she was apologizing, saying she hadn't read the whole article. Yesterday was the first day of Rosh Hashanah, by the way.
Another crash at College Plaza
A 43-year-old man who was apparently having a seizure crashed hard into the Office Depot store at College Plaza. It's the third time this year someone has crunched into a store in the shopping center with the big parking lot at St. Michael's Drive and Cerrillos Road. No one inside the store was hurt and the driver was taken to the hospital.
Meanwhile, a couple miles away ...
A Santa Fe parking enforcement officer appears to have left her car in drive when she got out to give someone a ticket on Hospital Drive. The city-owned car rolled down the hill and through a stop sign—and traffic—before crashing through a cement-block wall behind a home. No one was injured and the city says it's investigating.
Court rejects ranked-choice
The New Mexico Supreme Court has rejected a bid by advocates of ranked-choice voting to force the city of Santa Fe to use the system in the municipal election next March. Ranked-choice voting is actually supposed to be used in city elections, according to the city charter, after voters approved an amendment in 2008. But that amendment contained some wiggle room for cost and availability. A lot of it. It'll be more than a decade now before the system gets used. The city worried the new way of voting would confuse voters.
Driven to distraction
Texting while driving has been illegal in New Mexico since 2014. And Santa Fe has had a ban on hand-held cellphone use for 15 years. Is either of those laws working? SFR's cover story this week catches up with local officials, who have mixed feelings, and national experts, who say it's hard to draw a straight line between anti-distraction laws and fewer crashes.
Railyard building to be sold
A federal judge says it's time to sell the Market Station building in Santa Fe's Railyard development district. The order means the 64,000 square foot building will be sold at auction in November. It's a bankruptcy proceeding and the starting bid will be $11.5 million. The city owns the land beneath the building, but a judge ordered a trustee to be appointed to manage the building last year. The company that owns the building now, where REI is, says it plans to fight the order.
It's fall!
Well, it's about to be. That happens this afternoon at 2:02 here in Santa Fe. And while we've been basking in upper 70s temperatures, it's about to get a whole lot more autumnal. There's a strong chance of rain tomorrow and our highs will drop 8-10 degrees going into next week. Bust out the sweaters, buy some decorative gourds and start drinking your hot beverages with two hands: It's fall.
Thanks for reading! The Word finds itself getting nostalgic for raking leaves. Teenage Word would hate that.
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